Immersive data analytics as an emerging research topic in scientific and information visualization has recently been brought back into the focus due to the emergence of low-cost consumer virtual reality hardware. Previous research has shown the positive impact of immersive visualization on data analytics workflows, but in most cases, insights were based on large-screen setups. In contrast, less research focuses on a close integration of immersive technology into existing, i.e., desktop-based data analytics workflows. This implies specific requirements regarding the usability of such systems, which include, i.e., the prevention of cybersickness. In this work, we present a prototypical application, which offers a first set of tools and addresses major challenges for a fully immersive data analytics setting in which the user is sitting at a desktop. In particular, we address the problem of cybersickness by integrating prevention strategies combined with individualized user profiles to maximize time of use.

Applications of Virtual Reality (VR) have been repeatedly explored with the goal to improve the data analysis process of users from different application domains, such as architecture and simulation sciences. Unfortunately, making VR available in professional application scenarios or even using it on a regular basis has proven to be challenging. We argue that everyday usage environments, such as office spaces, have introduced constraints that critically affect the design of interaction concepts since well-established techniques might be difficult to use.
In our opinion, it is crucial to understand the impact of usage scenarios on interaction design, to successfully develop VR applications for everyday use. To substantiate our claim, we define three distinct usage scenarios in this work that primarily differ in the amount of mobility they allow for. We outline each scenario's inherent constraints but also point out opportunities that may be used to design novel, well-suited interaction techniques for different everyday usage environments. In addition, we link each scenario to a concrete application example to clarify its relevance and show how it affects interaction design.

In this work we describe the scenario of fully-immersive desktop VR, which serves the overall goal to seamlessly integrate with existing workflows and workplaces of data analysts and researchers, such that they can benefit from the gain in productivity when immersed in their data-spaces. Furthermore, we provide a literature review showing the status quo of techniques and methods available for realizing this scenario under the raised restrictions. Finally, we propose a concept of an analysis framework and the decisions made and the decisions still to be taken, to outline how the described scenario and the collected methods are feasible in a real use case.

Data from diverse workflows is often too complex for an adequate analysis without visualization. One kind of data are multi-dimensional datasets, which can be visualized via a wide array of techniques. For
instance, glyphs can be used to visualize individual datapoints. However, glyphs need to be actively looked at to be comprehended. This work explores a novel approach towards visualizing a single datapoint, with the intention of increasing the user’s awareness of it while they are looking at something else. The basic concept is to represent this point by a scene that surrounds the user in an immersive virtual environment. This idea is based on the observation that humans can extract low-detailed information, the so-called gist, from a scene nearly instantly (equal or less 100ms). We aim at providing a first step towards answering the question whether enough information can be encoded in the gist of a scene to represent a point in multi-dimensional space and if this information is helpful to the user’s understanding of this space.